Pictorial and Genealogical Record
of Greene County, Missouri

Together with Bibliographies of Prominent Men of Other Portions of the State, Both Living and Dead

DR. WILLIAM C. WADLOW. There is probably not a physician and surgeon in Greene County, Mo., who is known more widely or who enjoys a more extended practice than that which is given to the subject of this sketch; and that he deserves the good fortune that has attended his efforts is indisputable, for he is not only honest, reliable and intelligent, but is sympathetic, yet cheerful in the sick room and possesses the happy faculty of winning the confidence and liking of his patients, which has much to do with their restoration to health. He was born in what is now Murray Township, Greene County, Mo. In 1842, 8 son of Charles and Margaret (Brown) Wadlow who were born in Blount County, Tenn., in 1804 and Western Virginia in 1808 respectively. Soon after their marriage they removed from Tennessee to Illinois, where they lived about a year, then came to Greene County, Mo., by ox team and located on a tract of wild land on Grand Prairie near where the town of Willard now is. Later they removed to Wittenburg Prairie where the father died February 25, 1863, his widow surviving him until December 5, 1875, when she was called from life at Ash Grove. They were for many years members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Wadlow was a successful farmer and blacksmith, was a man of moderate education, though possessed of excellent natural judgment, and was a Democrat of the Jacksonian type. During the Civil War he was a stanch Union man. His brothers were: William, who died in Reynolds County, Mo.; Elijah, who died in Reynolds County; Wesley, who died in Greene County at the age of ninety-three years, was in one of the early Indian wars of that section, and was Assessor of Greene County when it covered nearly all of southwest Missouri; David died in McDonald County, and like his brothers was a farmer. Two of the sisters died in Tennessee and another went to Texas. Their father lived anddied in Tennessee, having been a soldier in the War of 1812. His father was a Scotchman. The parents of Margaret (Brown) Wadlow were of Irish descent, and it is supposed that they died in Virginia. . She was the only one of the family to come to Greene County. Dr. Wadlow is one of the following family: John W. was a farmer and died in 1862, leaving a widow ; Gabriel died in infancy in 1841; Margaret died in 1840; James M., died in December, 1889, having served in Company E., Forty-sixth Missouri Infantry, receiving his discharge March 25, 1865 (he left a widow and three children); Mary A., wife of James Carson, of Texas, and Elijah Gay, of Springfield. On his father's farm Dr. Wadlow spent his youthful days, and owing to the newness of the country at that time and the consequent scarcity of schools, his total amount of schooling only amounted to about eight months. At the age of eighteen years he began farming for himself, and on the 21st of October, 1860, he was united in marriage to Susan E., the daughter of Ronny and Mary Julian, who came to this section from Tennessee when it was new and unsettled. The father died at Cave Springs in 1872, having previously lived a few years in Jasper County, where Mrs. Julian died some years ago. After herdeath Mr. Julian married Mrs. Lusina Staley. Mrs. Wadlow is one of the six children born to her parents: John T., of Kansas; Sarah C., wife of Calvin J. Speen, of Kansas; Susan E. (Mrs. Wadlow); Elizabeth, the wife of J. F. Killingsworth, of Greene County; Caroline, wife of Clayton Smith of the Indian Territory, and Wilson G., of the same place. Mrs. Wadlow is the mother of six children: Charles E., a druggist of Anthony, Kan.; Margaret E., wife of J. R. Vestal, of Walnut Grove; Mary S., wife of Richard Whitlock, of Cass Township ; James G., of Cave Springs; Lillian, wife of George C. Watson, and Nora. In April, 1861, Mr. Wadlow joined Capt. McElhannons company and for three months was under Gen. Lyon and was in the reserve during the Wilson's Creek fight. He then joined the Seventy-second Missouri Militia and served about ten months in southwest Missouri after which be was transferred to the Seventy-fourth Missouri Cavalry. This service did not agree with his health and at the end of six months hewas honorably discharged from the service. His patriotic spirit would not allow him to long remain inactive, however, and in 1864 he left the business in which be had engaged and joined Company E, of the Forty-sixth Missouri Infantry, with which be served until the war closed, and was commissioned by Gov. Fletcher, of Company D, First Greene County Regiment, September 12, 1865 (said Company D being never called into service), receiving his final discharge March, 1865, from the United States service. From that time until 1875 he followed the occupation of farming in Greene County, except the year of 1873 when be was in Cedar County. He had for some time given considerable study to the profession of medicine, and in 1878 and 1879 he attended the Missouri Medical College and has since practiced at Cave Springs where he has sufficient practice to keep him constantly busy. In 1871-72 he was deputy sheriff of Greene County, and from 1867 he served four years as public administrator of the County. He is now a justice of the peace. He is commander of George Lang Post No. 403 at Cave Springs, and is a prominent member of St. Nicholas Lodge, No. 435 of the A. F. & A. M. His wife is a member of the Christian Church.